Disabling a car

woodpigeon4 · 4 Aug 2011 at 12:26

Asking this on behalf of a friend who will be going on holiday and leaving his car (mk5 astra) uninsured in the drive for two weeks. He was going to disconnect the battery but I advised against it, guessing it would disable the immobliser and alarm. Am I right? Is there anything you would recommend doing to make it less steal-able or should he just leave it?
thanks

woodpigeon4 · 4 Aug 2011 at 12:40

Berger said:
Wouldn't do anything to it apart from maybe insuring it.

If its not insured, then make sure it is SORN'd.

I thought it only had to be SORN'd if it wasn't taxed? As it's only going to be uninsured for a few weeks I don't see any point doing that.

R420LA6X2/4MNA said:
Remove the battery, wheels, engine - somebody could still lift it onto a flat bed truck mind you!

Its an Astra, I'm sure the removing the battery would put off most, remove the HT leads (if its a petrol) also helps.

Where to draw the line I guess.....

Yeah, we're not going to go too far

Do you know if removing the battery would disable the security though? Wouldn't know how to remove the HT leads.

woodpigeon4 · 4 Aug 2011 at 12:41

d_brennen said:
You'd probably have to unlock the radio after, do you have the code for it? For the sake of 2 weeks I'd just insure the thing

Yes, the code's in the manual. I might just tell him to insure it but would like to explore other possibilities in case he can't.

woodpigeon4 · 4 Aug 2011 at 17:08

thanks for those replies. I won't go into too much detail as it's all rather complicated, but basically it's going to be very difficult for him to insure it until next month, although hopefully he'll sort something out. I think I'll tell him to just lock it and leave it, as he isn't particularly technical and anything else would be too complicated I reckon. Anyway, the main purpose of this thread was to see if I was right or not about the battery, so thanks to those who clarified it.
And finally, for those who were saying no-one would bother stealing an astra, I believe it's still one of the most stolen cars in the uk.
:rolleyes:

woodpigeon4 · 5 Aug 2011 at 10:52

R420LA6X2/4MNA said:
Only because criminals are generally stupid!

Come on, whats the complex reason it can't be insured anyway?

Criminals? Stupid? What's the world coming to eh?

Basically, he bought 1 year's insurance a few months ago, so the car should technically be covered. However, due to a **** up by the insurance company (which sounds like it's partly his fault tbh) his policy is invalid. Due to family issues he doesn't have the time to sort it out right now, and understandably doesn't want to pay for insurance twice anyway.

Also, are astras really that bad? He's had his for a few years now, and it's been cheap to run, reliable and economical, and the few times I drove it, it didn't feel any worse than other basic 4 door hatchbacks

woodpigeon4 · 5 Aug 2011 at 11:28

Clarkey said:
doesn't have time to sort out insurance due to 'family issues', yet does have the time to swan off on holiday? Sounds like a load of BS to me.

Yeah, it's not a holiday as in "fun holiday" it's a holiday as in "trying to sort out family stuff". Excuse me for not posting his life story on OCUK motors :rolleyes:

woodpigeon4 · 5 Aug 2011 at 12:05

clv101 said:
This, just lock the thing and walk away.

That's what he'll do.

Clarkey said:
Not really a holiday at all then, but fair enough.

I just thought it was simpler to say that than explain it all, as it wasn't really relevant to my question. In future I'll try to give a slightly more detailed account